Learning to Love Jay Shetty

I saw a Jay Shetty book on the shelf of a monastery I visited.

I was surprised by the judgement that came up in me.

I associated Shetty with trashy, pop spirituality.

Couldn’t the monks see through his schtick?!

Or wait…

Maybe it is me who has distorted vision: I couldn’t see through my clouds of judgement.

What was my perception based on?

At a time when I was making lots of self-growth videos, I saw a bunch of his personal-growth videos going viral.

He was handsome and charismatic. (And had a cool accent.)

His videos were well-produced.

He was re-telling classic spiritual ideas and parables. (I thought he should be attributing more.)

He had massive marketing efforts behind him.

I found him to be inauthentic and ambitious.

Wait a minute…

I was jealous.

*I* wanted to be the one who was sharing timeless wisdom in a young, hip way.

I admired his ambition, even while I judged it.

I read an article that criticized him and gobbled it up. I let my bias cancel out his good.

“He talks all the time about being a former monk, but he steals others’ ideas and acts like a wanna-be celebrity!”

What is wrong with me?

He is sharing beautiful spiritual ideas with a mass audience.

He is actually a *partner* in my life mission.

How silly that my ego turned him into a competitor!

What really happened is that I have not resolved my own struggles with ego and confidence.

I judged him because I was judging myself.

It is no wonder that I have never achieved his level of success. How could I!? I was judging it.

How could I work to achieve something that I had negative attitudes about?

No wonder self-sabotage, insecurity, and laziness have kept me from the kind of success he has achieved.

I will learn to love Jay Shetty!

I will see him as a mentor and guide.

I will celebrate the impact he has on the world.

And I’ll feel grateful to have him — and so many other beautiful beings LIKE YOU — putting their energy into healing humanity.